“Finally, the Rock has come back to Boston” – and the North End

So during Monday Night Raw from the TD Garden in Boston, the Rock – son of former WWF Tag Team Champion Rocky Johnson and grandson of 1970s WWF star Peter Maivia – returned to the ring and mentioned the North End.

The North End is the Italian neighborhood in Boston best known for its row of restaurants on or near Hanover Street. It’s in easy walking distance of the Garden (and the old Boston Garden for that matter), so no doubt many wrestlers over the decades have headed over to the North End for a post-match meal.

The North End wasn’t the only local culinary attraction that made the air on Raw, as John Cena talked of going to the Kowloon after the show. As I’ve written before, the Kowloon is an immense Chinese restaurant in Saugus, MA, that wrestlers have been going to for as long as I can remember. There are many autographed pictures of wrestlers on the walls of the lobby and lounge, along with other pro athletes and entertainers.

Another spot that has lost its luster among wrestlers, but in 1980s was a frequent stop after cards at the Boston Garden, is a place called Kelly’s Roast Beef. It’s an outpost right along Revere Beach in Revere, MA, where you can eat heart-clogging roast beef sandwiches while watching the planes approach Logan Airport.

I distinctly remember a friend of mine telling me a story about Jimmy Snuka, The Bushwhackers, and I think Mr. Fuji trekking up to Kelly’s after a Garden show one night (this was during Snuka’s lackluster second WWF run in the late ‘80s).

While it would indeed be “wicked pissah” to see the Rock arrive at a North End eatery and exciting to witness a troupe of wrestlers storm the Kowloon, it would not be unusual at all to see two men who look like the Bushwhackers strolling along Revere Beach.

In the 1970s, Prof Toru Tanaka owned a neighborhood bar in Fall River called T-Sans (sic), which was frequented by wrestlers after working events at the Lincoln Park ballroom. An acquaintance of mine has had this endless debate that Tanaka also owned a laundromat on Brayton Ave @ the now-site of the St. John’s Club parking lot. St John’s kitchen was associated with a young Emiril Lagase who worked there as a teen in the mid-70s. I never seen Tanaka at the laundromat, as I live a block away and often frequented its candy machine, but many fans recall seeing wrestlers at T-Sans, which was in a seedy neighborhood that literally burned down over time due to arson, urban decay and absentee landlords.